My Take On American Media

News media, in its quality and content, are determined by people. Every time we swipe up on a story or click on a catchy title that catches our eye, we are fed with personally-curated information. Enticing in theory, we are only, slowly and constantly, reinforcing our beliefs, subscribing to news outlets that confirm our preconceived notions. It is instinctual for us to want to read something that agrees with us, but those “harmless” tendencies lead to paradigms known as confirmation bias and false consensus effect, which are causing a global catastrophe: the mass interpretation of the news.

Take the pandemic. A public health crisis emerged as information was poorly disseminated and poorly interpreted by the public. Everyone believed a different story about a health crisis that people were objectively losing their lives to every day. It is in these instances that a great responsibility is placed on the average citizen. 

We require an extensive campaign to bring awareness to critical thinking skills and expand people’s news feeds. In school, we’re taught to sample different sources before conducting our research projects, but we limit our minds as adults because we become complacent with our beliefs. With an active effort at the university and corporate level involving seminars and educational resources and a large social media campaign, we can work our way towards becoming balanced citizens, ones that constantly utilize critical thinking skills so as to be aware of all viewpoints and not just our own. Ever taken a look a close read at what you read? Look at the chart below: